The Banging Book Club | February: Nina is Not Ok

 * THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS *

(TRIGGER WARNING: alcohol, sexual abuse, domestic abuse)

Alright so as I've mentioned before, the inspiration behind our podcast is the Banging Book Club, comprised of three of my favourite YouTubers: Hannah Witton, Lucy Moon, and Leena Norms. They read both fiction and non-fiction books surrounding the topics of sex and gender, focusing on one book a month (their 2017 reading list can be found here).
I thought it'd be fun to take you along with me through the books. I'm going to divide my experience into sections - namely Before, During, and After - to give a brief and structured version of the discussions over at Holly Talks.

January's book just so happened to be Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James, which I tried to read but really couldn't - sorry. So we'll move on to February's novel, Nina is Not Ok by Shappi Khorsandi.

Before
I've read the blurb and what I can gather is that it seems like your standard YA "I'm a teenager feel sorry for me" kind of deal. There's obviously this a girl called Nina who gets really drunk and this big monumental event happens, she blacks out, and spends the rest of the book trying to piece her night back together from what her family and friends tell her. Perhaps she has sex with someone she didn't mean to? Maybe she is really really horrible to one of her friends. I swear I've read something like this where the protagonist ended up murdering someone and didn't know... Either way, I'm never usually too impressed by 'The Big Thing' that happens and am not really expecting to be blown away. Sorry Shappi.

During
Ok. Ok. This narrative definitely goes a lot deeper than I'd anticipated. Nina really is not ok, as I was forewarned. I'm on page 167 of 338 and she's got quite a massive problem with alcohol. I feel pretty bad for her actually, there's a lot of self-destructive behaviour that I can definitely relate to, and she is missing her little sister like crazy. There's this really sweet and loving side to her and I honestly believe that she is a good person. She lies to herself to keep her friends happy and wants to keep her family as close as she can. There's this massive rebellion she's going through in which she fights with alcohol and sex - but I don't think it's a phase at all. Also I 100% fancy her creative writing tutor as well, she sounds fit as hell.

After
It is now very apparent to me that this book is written to make you think about a multitude of things. Things like family, relationships, alcoholism, victim blaming, domestic abuse, self-love, and other more general issues in that vein. Nina gets help, she works out who is toxic and who is not, she grows to understand that communication is key, and she stands up to her attacker in more ways than one.

I feel like the first half of the book focuses mainly on the consequences of excessive alcohol consumption and strongly suggests that our protagonist is walking in her father's footsteps (who was an alcoholic himself and died when Nina was 9) - however her mum reaches out to her and after a bit of rehab and then continued AA meetings, she seems to gain back basic control of her life. 'The Big Thing' I earlier mentioned, it turns out, is a situation which Nina herself is too drunk to remember - she was sexually abused in an alleyway on a night out with her friends, although this isn't explored in great detail until the second half of the novel. The abuser shamelessly penetrates Nina's friendship group and continues his manipulative tirade on Zoe, who obsesses over him and is driven to illness.

This book is pretty complex. There are levels to every character, every major event, and nearly every conversation.

Here are three things I've learned from Nina is Not Ok:

1. It is important to have/create a strong network of people who support, love, and inspire you
2. The victim is called so for a reason - nothing excuses that
3. I'm jealous Nina has such a weird and wonderful little sister